Millercarbon’s first post might sound like a joke (and I assume that was
the intention), but there’s an element of truth to it. Ground rods in
dry, low quality soil (common conditions) are not ideal. You want a low
impedance path to ground and that isn’t easy to achieve. I’ve wondered
how you can get around this. Multiple grounding rods should help. Some
jurisdictions require at least 2. So would keeping the soil around the
ground rod wet. I have to imagine there is at least one audiophile on
this forum that has set up a sprinkler system to automatically water the
area near the ground rod to keep electrical conductivity with the earth
high. I’ve also wondered if putting a ground rod in a river bank or
stream would meet code because that would for sure solve the problem.
Right. I find dry prose to be so, uh, dry. I say, variety is the spice of life!
Besides, everyone already knows only five nines pure copper rod extruded with long grain crystals and cryogenically treated are the only acceptable grounding rods. Then just as the room is the most important element in a system the ground is the most critical element in the, er, ground. If you have the bad luck to have built on poor soil this can usually be alleviated by bulldozing down to bedrock and backfilling with a minimum 20 yards of topsoil containing a minimum 8% herkimer diamonds and mahgister sandwiches. Or you eat the mahgister sandwiches while digging, I never could get that part straight?
First of course you did a perk test for soil drainage, and have automatic irrigation to precisely maintain soil saturation as monitored by electrodes placed no more than 1m apart around the ground rod.
Be sure to allow 200 hours for your ground rod to burn in, warm up your ground rod before listening sessions, and whatever you do suspend the wire going to your ground rod above the ground so it doesn't touch the ground until it reaches the ground. Seriously.
